The present invention relates to magazines or cassettes for roll film, particularly for convoluted 8-millimeter motion picture film. Still more particularly, the invention relates to magazines or cassettes of the type wherein a core for a supply of unexposed motion picture film is coaxial with a rotatable core for exposed motion picture film and the housing of the magazine comprises a blocking device which normally prevents rotation of the core for exposed film in a direction to pay out such film.
It is already known to store motion picture film in cassettes or magazines of the above-outlined character. A drawback of presently known magazines is that their housing must be destroyed in order to gain access to the supply of exposed motion picture film. This is necessary because the exposed film is confined in a chamber which is completely sealed against entry of light and also because the rotary core which supports the supply of exposed photographic film can rotate only in a direction to collect the film. It is further known to construct a magazine for motion picture film in such a way that the blocking device for the rotary core which supports the supply of exposed film is accessible upon partial destruction or breakage of one wall of the magazine housing. Reference may be had to U.S. Pat. No. 3,622,101 granted Nov. 23, 1971 to Sutliff et al. Once the blocking device is rendered inoperative, the exposed film can be withdrawn from its chamber by way of the film gate along which successive frames of film travel during exposure to scene light. In each instance, the housing of the magazine cannot be reused again so that it has to be discarded after a single use. This results in substantial waste of valuable material.
Another drawback of magazines wherein the core for exposed film cannot rotate in a direction to pay out the film is that such magazines cannot be used in cameras which are designed to make exposures with lap dissolve and wherein, to that end, the core for exposed film must be free to rotate in both directions.